Editorials: Long story short

Published 3:33 pm, Saturday, February 28, 2015

With a $5 million aid package from the state Financial Restructuring Board, the city of Albany is on its way to reining in what has been a perennial municipal budget crunch.

City leaders were worried the money would carry some draconian conditions, but the state board only urged sensible actions, including sharing services with surrounding communities, boosting employee health care contributions and modernizing streetlights to save energy.

Included in the aid is $1.1 million to upgrade the city's computers. Perhaps Albany could handle tax billing and other systems transactions for neighboring governments.

The lack of many conditions seems to be an acknowledgement that there are no simple fixes. Albany needs long term solutions — like greater ongoing state aid. Tax revenue from private development at the Harriman State Office Campus and downtown wouldn't hurt, either.

A meltdown week for climate change deniers

First came the report that a prominent academic who has led the fight to discredit climate change is almost entirely funded by the energy industry. Willie Soon, a part-time researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, received more than $1.2 million from fossil fuel-based energy companies, lobby groups and oil billionaires, documents obtained by Greenpeace show.

Embarrassments like this only affirm that the real hoax is global warming denial.

Justice for the lowest paid in the workforce

The people at the very bottom New York's pay scale will finally get an overdue break: The wage for tipped workers will rise to $7.50 an hour Dec. 31, their first raise since 2011.

Acting Labor Commissioner Mario Musolino also rejected an absurd proposal to penalize workers $1 an hour if their tips put their earnings a certain percentage above the minimum wage. More changes are under study.

It's a step toward fairness. People who work hard should have a fighting chance to escape poverty.